Where No One Can Hear You Scream
by kdzl
Summary: He always thought she had been joking. But when a case in the woods of Northern Vermont becomes personal, Derek Morgan realizes that JJ's fear of the woods may not have been as innocent as she led him to believe.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This is my submission for CCOAC Silver Screen Challenge. My prompt was JJ, Morgan, Scream. Interestingly enough, though, after about three or four different attempts, I stumbled upon this story that suddenly needed to be told. If this chapter confuses you, search youtube for 'JJ tells a whopper', a scene in _Boogyman_ where JJ explains her fear of the woods by teasing Morgan...or, in this story, by scratching the surface of a horrible secret from her past. It is completed, but it probably won't all be posted by the deadline because I have a million edits to do for the later chapters.

Enjoy.

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><p>It wasn't such a stretch.<p>

Sometimes, she still thought about it. The day she had tried airing the darkest secret she had ever kept to the people she trusted the most, just to see their reactions.

But when the pity and the horror crossed their faces, she knew she couldn't share even the half of it.

'_Why the woods JJ?'_ Morgan had asked conversationally, sipping his coffee as they all sat around in Ozona, Texas. _'Your fear, you said it was of the woods.'_

'_I used to be a camp counselor in the woods when I was a teenager in Northern Vermont.' _She had shrugged, focusing on the beverage in front of her lest they see how much this actually affected her. _'I had the night shift.'_ She had clarified, unable to keep details from seeping into the story. _'You know, tuck in the kids, put them to bed.'_ She hadn't been able to stop herself from drifting back to that time, from remembering the dark red sticky substance staining the floor and the odd smell that had wafted toward her. The details came out just as she remembered them, but she had paused as Reid sat back shocked by the horror that had been her adolescent years.

And in that moment, she had stopped herself.

She had stopped herself from mentioning how she had caught a glimpse of a shadow behind her, slamming the door only to feel the thin wood buckle as the unknown assailant beat ferociously.

She hadn't mentioned that the other counselor had heard her scream and called 911, only to be found with her throat slashed when the police arrived.

She hadn't mentioned the three campers that had been slaughtered.

No, this was her personal hell.

And the last thing she needed was their pity.

'_You're serious?'_ Derek had asked, pity radiating off him at the thought that could be true.

Unfortunately, it wasn't even the half of it.

'_No.'_ She had scoffed, redirecting the conversation to focus on Reid's fear of the dark.

It was easier that way. And hopefully, no one would ever find out the truth.

That she had never believed that the caretaker had been the figure she had seen out of the corner of her eye.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Wow, I was astounded by the outpouring of support for this story. I hope I don't disappoint. Thanks to everybody who has reviewed and alerted so far.

Enjoy.

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><p>She drummed her fingers nervously on the arm of the chair, hating the very thought of returning to the woods of Northern Vermont.<p>

As a child, she had loved the quiet dense woods outside her father's home. Later, those same woods had become her safe haven as she escaped the memory of her sister's brutal suicide.

And even later still, that safe haven had been ripped away as any semblance of innocence she still had left was shattered after that lone violent night.

"You okay?" Morgan asked, flopping down in the seat behind her, easily picking up on her nervousness.

She glanced over at the others who she could feel watching her out of the corner of their eyes despite purposefully avoiding her. "Yeah." She smiled with a levity she didn't feel. "I'll be fine. I just hate those cases in the woods."

Morgan smirked and she was instantly reminded of what he thought he knew.

She should say something.

She really should.

But that was a mass murderer.

Where they were headed now, it was serial.

Totally different, yet oddly familiar at the same time.

Same town. Same woods. Different UnSub.

Hopefully.

"Just stay by me and I'll keep you safe." Derek winked.

She snorted despite the anxiety she felt—or maybe because of it—and nudged him away gently. "It will be a cold day in hell before I need you to keep me safe."

Morgan's smirk broadened into a full on grin. "You say that now, Jayje, but just wait until you hear something rustling in those dark scary woods and you'll be begging for the Derek Morgan Magic." He assured.

Emily snorted and came down to sit in the seats across from them, apparently deciding that it was now acceptable to interrupt their brief moment alone. "Just hearing you call it the 'Derek Morgan Magic' makes me die a little inside." She rolled her eyes playfully.

Eventually, the plane landed uneventfully and the group descended the small space with practiced efficiency.

Quietly, Hotch pulled JJ away from the group, just before they approached the waiting detective standing in front of two black SUVs.

"JJ, I need to know that you can remain objective on this." He explained softly, purposefully keeping his voice low to protect the secret he knew she had never exposed to the others. "If you can't—" He held the statement out, letting her know there were other options.

JJ frowned, cursing inwardly as the others watched with piqued interest. "It was a long time ago Hotch."

He studied her closely, searching for any hint of deception before nodding slowly. "Let me know if it gets too much for you."

She smiled, having absolutely no intention of doing so, but nodded regardless. "Absolutely."

"JJ, Morgan. Check out the dump site." Hotch ordered as they returned to the others, pausing only long enough to greet the detective before barking his commands. "Prentiss and Reid, start the geographical profile, Rossi and I will start with the victims' records and then go interview families."

JJ rolled her eyes. Ever since she had come back, Hotch made it a point to avoid sending her to gather information about the victims. She suspected he was trying to reassure her that they trusted her, but it didn't help that he always paired her with himself, Rossi, or Morgan.

It was like he was trying her out on training wheels when she'd already won the _Tour de France_.

But if it made Hotch and the others feel more at ease, she supposed she could let it slide.

"Come on Princess." Morgan teased gently, snatching the keys from the detective and gesturing toward the SUV. "I'll drive."

JJ groaned as she followed Derek to the car, fighting against the pit in her stomach that told her that maybe this case wouldn't be so easy after all.

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><p>The others arrived at the station, swiftly making quick work of setting up the small conference room to their usual specifications.<p>

Hotch quickly pulled out his phone, placing it on speaker so the others could hear and add any other criteria they may have.

_'Oracle of Knowledge and Information.'_ Penelope greeted.

"Garcia, have you found any connections between the victims?" Hotch asked briskly, hoping to get this case over with as soon as possible. "Any connection could be the what this UnSub picks up on."

He hated when personal issues became involved in cases because it always made it harder.

This job was hard enough without adding personal issues on top of it.

But for each of them, personal cases were more of an exception rather than the rule.

Thank God for that.

_'All of the victims lived in Lowell, Vermont for most of their lives.' _ The entire team could feel the frustration in Penelope's voice. _'These victims were so connected, we'd be better to find areas where they were different.' _ She groaned. _'Jayje told me once that this town had two cemeteries and one sports grill.'_

"Wait—" Rossi interrupted. "How would JJ know?"

Penelope fell silent, cursing herself for revealing intimate information that supposedly held no value. JJ wanted to keep this private, and Garcia could definitely understand the desire for the team not to see all of the risqué details, but something niggled at the back of her mind adding to the twingeling her stomach uncomfortably.

Just the way it had that time she found out Morgan had been arrested.

Or when Prentiss had been declared dead.

And she had a sickening feeling that this was far more connected than JJ wanted to admit.

"Garcia?" Reid prompted curiously.

_'Can I talk to JJ?'_ Garcia asked, uncharacteristically uncomfortable with the others listening in.

This was far too sensitive just to air over the phone.

"She's out in the field with Morgan." Hotch explained gruffly, sensing Penelope's hesitation but not wanting to draw attention to it.

_'Hotch?'_ Garcia asked. _'Can I speak to you privately, Sir?'_

Hotch took her off speakerphone. "You're off speaker." He informed her.

_'Um. You know, about JJ, right?'_ Garcia asked hesitantly. The last thing she wanted to do was betray JJ's trust, but some things…some things needed to be said.

"I am aware." Hotch ground out, glancing over at the others who were listening attentively.

_'Hotch, I can't help but feel like there is something else going on here. I mean, this town hasn't seen anything bigger than a car accident since that night…it's all too convenient.'_

Hotch clenched his jaw tightly. He knew they should be pursuing every lead.

But this was JJ.

And privacy, in this job, was incredibly hard to come by.

"We won't make any assumptions until we have more evidence." He stated, not certain whether that meant he was considering these related, or whether he was deciding they weren't.

Glancing around at the others who were still watching him intently, he cringed as he realized that he had only seemed to feed their curiosity. "Let me know what else you find." He ended the call, glaring at the others with the hope to spur them back to work.

Glancing over at the large stack of files he hoped, for JJ's sake, that this wasn't related at all to the violent episode of her adolescence.

The pit in his stomach told him that maybe they wouldn't be so lucky.

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><p>"Are you ready for this?" Derek grinned over at JJ beside him who was clutching onto the armrest of the chair with white knuckles as he pulled the SUV over onto the side of the road and turned it off. "There's no need to be nervous." He teased softly.<p>

"I'm not nervous." JJ rolled her eyes, releasing the armrest she clenched her fist tightly in an attempt to ward off anxiety she didn't want Morgan to see. "I just don't like the woods."

"If you're scared…" He held out the suggestion as he watched her face for any hint of a reaction that might explain what she and Hotch had been talking about earlier. "I can let you stay here."

She snorted, pushing him lightly as she opened her door. "And miss you screaming like a little girl if you see a spider? No way."

His grin faded, mentally preparing himself for the next retort before being interrupted by the buzzing of his phone. Glaring at JJ, he frowned and added quickly, "Spiders are disgusting."

"Just answer your phone." JJ chuckled, closing the door behind her.

"Hey Garcia." Morgan smiled as he answered while JJ stepped around the car to speak to the local uniformed officer who had led them to the small secluded area. "What can I do you for?"

_'Oh, I'd let you do me for—'_ He could almost hear her shake her head and stop herself before dropping her voice seriously. _'I don't have time for this, I just—Derek, Hotch told me you're out in the woods with JJ?' _ She asked, searching for a clarification that only seemed to make Morgan's interest grow.

"Yeah." He held out the word questioningly, but when Penelope failed to clarify, he pushed a little further. "Why?"

_'I just—watch out for her, okay? She pretends to be big and tough and this new promotion is important to her, but—watch out for her._' Garcia commanded.

Now, if Morgan had been interested before, now he was completely engrossed in whatever was going on that he didn't understand.

"Baby Girl, I don't—"

_'Please, Derek? For me? Just watch out for her.'_ Garcia was almost begging now, and if it wasn't for the fact that JJ was waiting for him and lives hung in the balance, he would have forced the tech to reveal everything she knew.

As it was, his curiosity was going to have to take a backseat.

"Sure." He assured her. "I've got her back, you don't even have to ask."

The relief in Garcia's voice concerned him almost more than everything else had combined. _ 'Thanks, I was so worr—' _She caught herself mid-word and stopped herself, _'I appreciate it.'_ She settled for.

Hanging up the phone, he pulled the keys out of the ignition and stepped out of the car.

JJ was hiding something.

And after this case, he was going to find out what it was.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the delay, thanks for everyone who has reviewed.

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><p>"Jenny Jareau." A uniformed officer smiled as he approached her. JJ glanced quickly back to the car, grateful to see Morgan engrossed in some conversation on his phone. "Never thought I'd see you back here."<p>

"Jim." JJ grinned, holding out her hand. "It's been a long time."

"Too long." He smiled, ignoring the outstretched hand and enveloping her in a warm hug. She laughed and pushed him away. "How about we get to work?" She asked, sobering slightly at the sight of the immense woods in front of her.

He grimaced, following her gaze back at the woods behind them. "You guys don't think this is all related do you?"

JJ shook her head. "That was almost twenty years ago Jim." She reminded him. "Plus, this is almost entirely different."

His grimace hardened into a full frown at that, his eyes darkening. "You may be some hot-shot FBI Agent, Jenny, but around here, we don't get too many crazies with knives cutting people up. Most of the locals have already made the connection."

"There is no connection, Jim." JJ reaffirmed. "They are both awful things that have happened, but there is nothing to suggest that after twenty years, someone who is still in jail by the way, would terrorize this area again."

Jim simply looked at her, frustrated that something that seemed so obvious appeared to be an impossible leap for the FBI. "For example?" He asked hotly.

"That was one night, Jim." She insisted, shaking her head as she dismissed the connection, whether because she didn't want to believe it was possible or because she just didn't see it, she wasn't sure. "This has been over several days."

"So?" He retorted, running his hand through his short jet black hair. "Jenny, I don't have to tell _you_ how bad that was, but this guy—" Jim's voice trailed off as Morgan stepped out of the SUV, watching them curiously.

"Don't let me interrupt anything." Morgan smiled, his eyes bouncing between the officer and JJ as he tried to pick up on what was going on.

"Jim Hanson, this is SSA Derek Morgan. Derek, this is Officer—" JJ tried to introduce quickly, avoiding Morgan's interested gaze.

"Sergeant" Jim corrected, "James Hanson." The younger man stuck out his hand warmly. "Jenny here is the only one who still calls me Jim."

"Apparently the feeling was mutual." Morgan fought a grin as he shot JJ a look at the nickname, well aware she had come near to castrating other agents who had made the mistake of calling her anything but JJ or Agent Jareau.

JJ blushed, turning sharply toward the woods as she tried to refocus to the matter at hand. "They were all found in here?" She asked, gesturing to the thick mass of trees and brush.

Jim nodded, sensing JJ didn't want to go into their entire shared childhood. "All within about five miles of the road."

"Doug Perkins still owns this land, right?" JJ asked, cringing as she could see Derek's interest grow.

"Wait, how do you know so much about this town?" Morgan asked, unable to stifle his curiosity any longer.

"Jenny grew up here. Didn't she tell you?" Sergeant Hanson asked with surprise.

"No. Jenny didn't tell me—" Morgan grinned, shooting JJ an expectant look.

"I half-way grew up here." She explained reluctantly. "My parents divorced when I was six. Dad lived here, I spent summers here until I was eighteen."

"And another mystery of Jennifer Jareau is revealed." Morgan scoffed.

"I—"

"Wait, what was that?" Morgan asked, walking toward the woods before breaking out in a light jog that turned out into a sprint.

Sensing that Derek had seen something, JJ gestured for her old friend to follow them just as Morgan entered the tree line.

"Hey—" She heard him call, into the darkness of the woods. He had to only be a few steps ahead of her. "What are you—" The strangled cry surprised her and sent her racing forward, her heart thumping loudly in her chest.

"Derek!" She gasped, coming around a tree to find her partner on the ground with blood seeping from a wound in his gut. "Jim! Call an ambulance." She barked, tucking her gun in the back of her pants before thrusting her hands onto the wound as she tried to stop the bleeding.

"What happened?" Jim asked, rounding the corner and tucking away his own gun before quickly shedding his shirt and handing it over to his childhood friend.

He radioed for help, sensing JJ was nearing the edge of hysteria.

"Jayje." Derek licked his lips, bleeding more than he thought possible. "UnSub was 5'11. Sandy blonde hair, green eyes—"

"Ssh, we'll find him, I promise." She urged, knowing she needed to know the information, but aware that speaking was just draining his energy.

"The medics are five minutes out." Jim announced, kneeling on the other side of Derek to help.

JJ felt hot tears burning behind her eyes as she held Derek's wound tightly. "You're going to be fine." She assured. "Stay with me."

He grimaced painfully. "It's going to take more than a knife to the gut to make me go away." He teased, though the color draining rapidly from his face told a completely different story.

She tried to stop the blood, cringing as the sticky warm substance seeped through her fingers. "I'm serious Derek, Garcia will kill me if I let anything happen to you."

"I'm supposed to be protecting you." He tried to smile, though the corners of his mouth failed to turn up as if it just took too much effort.

"I don't need protecting." JJ smiled, her voice catching as one tear escaped and slowly descended along her cheek. She gasped when Derek didn't respond, realizing he had slipped into unconsciousness.

"Jenny, step back." Jim encouraged, gently pushing her away as he took over her position and held Morgan's wound tightly. "Go to the road pull the ambulance back around." He coaxed. "Show the medics where we are, they've got to almost be here by now."

JJ nodded, stepping away as she absently pushed a stray lock of hair out of her face, forgetting the sticky substance that stained her hands. She probably was going into shock—that much she was fairly certain about—but she didn't have the energy to care as she looked down at Derek's bleeding form.

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><p>James frowned as he held his hands against the Agent's wound, wondering where Jenny had gone. It had been nearly five minutes.<p>

She should be back by now.

"James!" Pete Cole rushed into the woods with his partner, emergency equipment in hand. "We've been looking everywhere for you. Let's get him to the Bus."

"Wait, where's Jenny?" James asked, having a sinking feeling as the two paramedics looked at him with confusion.

"Jenny?" Pete asked. "Jenny who?"

"Jenny Jareau. I sent her to the road to wait for you." James sputtered.

"No one was there. The only way we found you was by searching the area around your cars. Thank God you didn't go further into the woods because we never would have found you." Pete's partner shrugged, turning to the patient as he started life-saving protocols.

"You didn't see her?" He clarified again.

Pete shrugged. "No."

James frowned, hating the realization that was coming more and more apparent.

Jennifer Jareau was missing.

These cases had to be related.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the delay, thanks for everyone who has reviewed.

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><p>JJ came to for only a minute, able to see the passing trees through the back window as she fought to stay conscious, wondering deftly why that task seemed so hard.<p>

As the car hit a bump, she turned her head and vomited into the foot space of the backseat beside her.

Her head hurt.

Her vision was swimming.

And as she finally closed her eyes and allowed the darkness to consume her, she couldn't help but remember what happened the last time she entered these woods.

She almost hadn't come out alive.

**Nineteen years ago…**

JJ rolled her eyes as she knocked on the door for her campers. "Lights out guys." She scolded, adding on an attempt to guilt them into compliance, she added. "I can't go to bed until I turn in this report, and I can't do that until all of you are asleep."

Giggles sounded from various beds and she rolled her eyes, not really annoyed but wondering if she had ever been that small. "Sorry Counselor JJ." One voice she couldn't quite place (all eight year olds seemed to sound the same) called out.

"Lights out." She reaffirmed, feeling a surge of relief she turned off the lights and the small cabin was plunged into darkness while the girls settled into their beds. "Go to _sleep_." She added, stepping down the stairs as she twirled the string on her official 'counselor whistle' in her hands, slightly lost in thought as she turned toward the administration building.

"Hey Jenny." A familiar voice called out of the darkness, making her jump as she whirled around to face him.

Catching her breath, and resting her hand over her heart to try and slow its rapid beating, she took a deep breath. "Doug. You scared me." She stated, her eyes widening as she stepped back involuntarily from her bosses son.

"Jenny, I think you've been avoiding me." Doug smiled.

"You just got back from school, right?" She asked, trying to maintain conversation as she looked around for any other counselor to help her.

It wasn't that Doug was a bad guy, she remembered that he used to date her sister.

But…there was something different about him—something that made her hair stick up straight on the back of her neck.

"Yep, just turned 23." He grinned, stepping toward her apparently unaware of the reaction he caused in her. "I'm staying here until I can find a job."

"Oh, that's great." JJ said, feeling a surge of hope as some of the other counselors made their rounds to the late night campers.

"Don't you just love it out here in the woods?" He asked, taking a deep breath as he took another step toward her, gesturing around himself proudly. "Nothing can harm you here, it's just so peaceful."

"Yeah. Peaceful." JJ snorted, shivering slightly as she looked around at the large expanse of trees that surrounded them. "I guess I'm not much of a woodsy person." She shrugged.

Most of the time, she didn't have to explain because people in this town knew her story before even meeting her.

Which mercifully meant that she didn't have to explain the terror that still struck her sometimes at being in a cabin deep in the woods.

Doug snorted, leaning closer to her over a banister she had used to shield him with. "Tough job, for a camp counselor to hate the woods." He grinned.

"Yeah, I needed the money." She shrugged, looking around for an excuse to leave. "Oh, it looks like I need to go—" She tried to excuse herself politely, gasping as she felt his hand tighten around her wrist.

"Not everything in the woods needs to be bad." He turned his head, looking at her sideways as he held her back from leaving with a fire in her eyes that made her stomach recoil. "I know Annie died out here in the woods, and I know you were messed up by that for a long time, but—"

She glanced down at her wrist before looking back up at him, cutting him off before he could go any further. "Uh—Doug—I've really got to go." She twisted her wrist loose, cradling it as she backed away quickly. "It was a long time ago." She added, turning back to trot toward the administration building and shut the door behind her tightly.

She held her back against the door, panicking slightly as she forced herself to even out her breathing, ignoring the questioning looks from others as she tried to calm herself.

Why did Doug seem to make her blood chill?

It was there—somewhere just outside the vestiges of her memory.

There was a reason he made her skin crawl.

She sighed as she avoided the questioning glances from the other counselors, stepping away from the door and turning in her paperwork quietly before slipping into a chair to wait for a large group to return with her.

She hated that her dad hadn't moved, that he made her come back to this awful town where everybody knew what had happened.

Unfortunately, the town knew more than she did herself.

She hated that she couldn't remember Annie's last moments, to make sense of the awful tragedy that had rocked her childhood. She hated that the first thing she could remember was being loaded into an ambulance with a tight blanket around her.

But most of all, she hated the fear that coursed through her body at the thought of Doug Perkins' eyes.

"Hey JJ—you okay?" Christy Walker, a fellow counselor that had quickly become one of JJ's close friends, sat down next to her with worry written across her face. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

JJ waved her concern off. "I'm fine. I just ran into Doug—"

"That creep?" Christy snorted. "You told him to get lost, right?"

JJ smiled weakly. "He's the bosses son, Chris—how am I supposed to earn money for school if I lose my job?"

Christy stuck out her tongue. "Being old sucks."

JJ laughed, grateful for someone else to voice her sentiments exactly.

"Hey girls, it's getting late." Brian Cooper, the caretaker for the small camp, smiled easily. "Would you like me to walk you back to your cabins?"

"It's fifty feet Brian." Christy smiled, already standing with the hopes to spend just a moment longer in the older boy's presence. Brian was twenty-one and just home from the University for the summer. He was tall, with broad shoulders and tan skin, and since the day she had laid eyes on him Christy had been madly in love.

While JJ thought Brian was a little weird for showing interest in a high school girl, he always seemed nice.

JJ frowned, torn between reminding Brian she was perfectly capable of walking to her cabin herself, but hating the thought of running into Doug in the shadows even worse. "Sure." She shrugged, hoping she had kept her voice nonchalant.

Apparently she hadn't as the others looked at her with growing concern. Sighing, she relented. "I just—Doug scared me earlier, came up behind me, out of the shadows."

Brian and Christy exchanged a look. "Then I'm _definitely_ walking you to your cabin." Brian announced to no one in particular.

"JJ, why didn't you say something? We should report him."

"It wasn't a big deal." JJ shrugged off their worry, slightly embarrassed to be making such a big deal out of nothing. "It just scared me is all."

"I don't like the way he follows you—" Christy stated, not for the first time voicing her concern.

Brian listened to the conversation carefully, not liking the idea of _anyone_ sneaking around in the shadows. But Doug Perkins was another story entirely. And the fact that he was prowling around scaring _JJ_ made him even more concerned. "JJ, I'm going to talk to him, okay?"

"No, Brian, I don't want to make a big deal about it." She pleaded.

"Look, I get that, but I'm more worried about everyone being safe. I won't tell him you told me, I'll just ask him to be a little more careful." He explained, stopping at the foot of the stairs to her cabin as he gestured for her to go inside.

JJ paused for a moment, weighing her options. Finally, she smiled, reaching up on her tiptoes to offer Brian a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks."

"Any time." He smiled reassuringly, turning back to Christy. "Let's get you to your cabin before any of the kids wake up." He grinned, and somewhere JJ knew that Christy probably wasn't making it back to the cabin until much later that night.

Weird. She shuddered, leaving her friends behind as she returned to the small woodsy cabin. She settled into bed, falling asleep easily after a long day of work. She woke sometime later, surprised by the eerie quiet at three in the morning as she tried to place why she was awake.

And there it was—distant, so distant she might be able to fall back asleep—but it was the muffled sound of a whimpering child. She sat up straight, looking around the room. As the counselor on the night shift, she slept closest to the door, offering some comfort for the kids who had never been away from home. If it wasn't in the middle of the 'Woods of Satan' as she liked to call them, then she would almost like it.

Glancing down at the rows of beds lining the door of their cabin, she noticed each one of her girls sleeping peacefully in the dim moonlight. A distinct sniffle near the door brought her attention around, forcing her to focus at the dark shadow near the door. Forcing away a pang of nervousness, she flung herself out of bed, cautiously approaching the dark corner, she knelt down with a hope that she didn't seem imposing. "What's wrong?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she waited for the child to step out of the darkness.

"Counselor JJ?" A voice asked, the pained whimper cutting through the darkness.

"Yeah. What's wrong?" She asked again, forcing herself to push away the fear and sound as comforting as possible despite a familiar smell that made her stomach roll.

"I think he hurt Counselor John." The child announced, stepping out of the shadows to reveal a small boy soaked from head to toe in blood.

* * *

><p>"Forty-one year old male, stab wound to the abdomen perforating the large intestine." The medic announced rushing alongside the stretcher as Emergency personnel quickly took over.<p>

"Get two units of O Negative and prep the OR." A middle aged woman barked, "Page Dr. Steinfeld."

James Hanson watched it all with a mixture of disgust and awe.

Agent Morgan had to pull through.

Glancing down at the phone in his hands, he hesitated to make the call he knew needed to go out.

Sighing, he pushed his finger against the appropriate key, waiting for dispatch to be connected through speed dial. "1 Jim 1, I need to call in a 10-57." He frowned, "And get the FBI down to the hospital ASAP."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **Thanks for everyone who has reviewed, I genuinely appreciate it.

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><p>He blinked before he ever really realized he had ever lost consciousness. Turning his head slightly, he grinned as Emily sat at his bedside, slowly flipping through some magazine. "Hey." He croaked.<p>

She looked up, pleasantly surprised as she put down the magazine. "Hey, they said you'd be waking up soon."

"What happened?" He asked, raising his hand to scratch his bald head, surprised at how heavy his limb felt. "Where's everyone?"

"Knife wound to the abdomen." She gestured to his stomach and as she mentioned it he felt the dullness surrounding his midsection. "You lost a lot of blood. Hotch and Rossi are down with Reid at that precinct interviewing the cop you were with." She smiled, tucking her still impeccable hair behind her ear nervously. "They said you might not wake up for a while."

He grunted, surprised at how quickly his energy was draining.

Days from now, he might be fighting his way out of the hospital—but right now, all he wanted to do was fall back asleep.

"You've got to quit doing that to me Cowboy." Emily smiled teasingly, though her eyes were dimmed by a cloud of worry he could almost feel that piqued his interest.

"Doing what to you Princess?" Morgan asked, grimacing as he shifted in the bed and inadvertently pulling his stitches too tight.

"This whole thing where you almost die." She gestured around her to the hospital with a smirk. "Excuse me for saying, but it gets old real fast."

"Better than pretend dying." He chuckled, placing his hand against the newly stitched injury as he tried to push the pain away from the forefront of his mind.

Emily offered a small smile. "Yeah, I guess it is." She agreed, taking a deep breath as she tried to get over the sight of one of her friends in the hospital.

"Where's JJ?" He asked finally, closing his eyes as he tried to allow himself to rest as his mind sluggishly tried to keep up with their conversation. "You said Hotch and Rossi are down at the station with Reid. Where's JJ?"

Emily frowned, hesitating just a second too long. "Derek—"

At the soft worry in her tone, his eyes shot open, a sick feeling of dread overtaking him. "Where is she Prentiss?"

"JJ's missing." Emily cringed, knowing that if it were someone else they would be able to be far more delicate.

As it was, she and Derek had a policy: Honesty at all costs.

And she wasn't about to lie to him just to protect him.

Not now.

Not after Doyle.

"Missing?" He sat back, his heart dropping at the thought. He was supposed to be watching her.

He was supposed to be _protecting her_.

He had promised.

Narrowing his gaze, he watched her closely for any hint of deception. "Does Hansen know anything?"

"Derek, I don't know, I've been here with you." She reminded him, biting the inside of her lip as she tried not to think of all the things that could possibly be happening to her close friend.

"Then go. They need you Em. You've got to find her." He pleaded.

"They'll call if they know anything." She assured, hesitating. She had wanted to help find JJ, but Derek had also been a priority.

They were two agents down, if they were going to find JJ they had to work fast. But Derek had been stabbed and the UnSub was still at large.

Who was she supposed to pick to protect?

JJ, the woman who had risked her life to help her hide from Doyle? Or Morgan, the man who always had her back and would give his life for her in an instant?

It was an impossible choice.

"Look, I'm fine. JJ's out there." He insisted, feeling even more guilty as he remembered how much he had teased her about her fear of the woods. "Who knows what could be happening to her."

She frowned, obviously torn. "If I go, you'll stay here and rest?" She asked, unwilling to leave unless she was really sure she could go. "There's a local officer outside, just for your protection, but I'm not leaving unless I'm sure you will be okay."

"I'll be okay, I promise." He yawned, holding up his palm. "Scouts honor."

"Right." She laughed, "And if I were to bet that you had never been a scout?" She asked, already standing.

"You'd be right." Morgan murmured, desperately trying to fight the exhaustion just long enough to send her out. He sighed as the door closed behind her, his eyes drooping heavily as he tried to allow himself to relax and allow the others to handle JJ's rescue.

And he tried not to think about the terror in her eyes from the last time he saw her.

* * *

><p>"You think I could do this to her? To Jenny?" Jim asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly as he leaned against the wrong side of the familiar interrogation table. "You are out of your mind. I've known her since we were <em>eight<em>."

"I think you know enough about law enforcement to bring in our unit." Hotch grumbled gruffly. "I think you told her to go out alone. But I don't think you did this alone."

"Where is she Hansen?" Rossi asked, feeling his own sense of control slipping through his fingertips.

"We know your partner is holding JJ waiting for you to tell him what to do." Reid agreed.

"Oh, no." Jim sat back, holding up his hands in surrender. "I'm not going down like this. I'm not letting you Feds come in and steamroll over the locals _again._" He spat, pointing his finger down on the table specifically. "I. Did. Not. Do. This."

"Again?" Reid asked, slightly confused. "I don't see—"

"Look, I'm not asking for my attorney. I want to help find Jenny, but you _can't do that_ until you stop looking at me as a suspect." Jim reassured them, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to come up with anything else that might help his cause.

"We are looking at you as the suspect because you told her to go into the woods alone." Rossi spat, his fury growing by the second.

"I was worried about her!" Jim groaned, rubbing his eyes, well aware of how bad this looked. "Look, I care about Jenny as much as you do, but I didn't do anything." He insisted desperately. "The sooner you believe me, the sooner we can find the creep that has Jenny."

"See, and that's where this stops making sense." Rossi growled, "Jennifer Jareau is a capable agent with the FBI. What possible reason could you have to be worried about her?" Hotch glanced quickly at Dave before remaining quiet. "Unless you knew something was going to happen."

Jim rubbed his brow tiredly. "Look, I was just trying to be a nice guy. Jenny was going into shock. After what she's been through, I can't say I blame her."

"What she's been through?" Reid asked curiously. "How could you possibly know what she's been through?" He asked, disgust and rage filling every word.

"You mean she didn't tell you." He groaned, "That's why she said you weren't looking at it as a connection. She never told you."

"Told us what?" Rossi asked, ignoring the way Hotch's frowned deepened as if making some connection he had been trying to avoid.

"About the Perkins Camp Murders?" Jim asked, looking at each of them for some hint of recognition. Finding none, he asked again, "Annie Jareau's suicide?"

Rossi and Reid fell silent as Hotch fought the urge to close his eyes in defeat.

"Everything traumatic in JJ's life, happened in those woods." Jim explained. "And this just makes it clear that the Perkins Camp Murders were all related!" He insisted.

"We can't know that." Hotch defended.

"Hotch, a word?" Rossi growled, feeling the man beside him hitch slightly as he realized Rossi had caught onto him.

Stepping outside of the interrogation room, Hotch turned as he found an equally fuming Emily come up behind Dave and Reid who were looking at him with fury.

"When were you going to tell us, Hotch?" Emily spat, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes crossly. "How were we supposed to find her when you're keeping something _this_ important from us."

"I was trying to respect JJ's privacy for as long as I could." Hotch defended, ending the argument with a single look.

Emily frowned, still fuming but falling silent as she noticed the others were still watching Hotch intently.

"So what happened?" Reid asked.

Hotch sighed, turning to his briefcase and pulling out a small thin file. "There isn't much to go on."

Reid took the file first, breezing over it quickly before the sheer emotional weight forced him to slow down.

Statistics, complicated scholarly journals, typical case files of blood, murder, and gore—all of them were typically something he could read at his insane speed.

This—this hurt.

This was JJ.

"Six people were murdered." He murmured finally, handing the file off to Rossi who devoured it quickly, not even pausing as he looked through the gruesome pictures.

"JJ was a witness?" Emily asked.

"JJ—from reading her deposition—was nearly a victim." Hotch frowned, well-versed with this case.

"She testified for the defendant and said she had seen the UnSub and she didn't think it was him." Reid explained, frowning. "But he still was convicted and sent to death row."

"JJ tried to have his conviction overturned with DNA evidence about five years ago." Hotch admitted, briefing them on evidence that they may not have noticed. "Brian Cooper's fingerprints were on the knife."

Emily frowned, trying to make sense of all the information that was being thrown at them.

JJ had witnessed an unspeakable tragedy.

And it was possible that an innocent man had gone to jail, just for the original Unsub to wreak havoc twenty years later.

It wouldn't be the first time.

"Could we be dealing with a copycat?" She asked, already dismissing the idea in her mind.

The attack was too focused.

Too well-planned.

"I think we look at it from every possible side." Hotch suggested. "But I think we are past the point of looking at a Copycat realistically."

"Twenty years is a long cooling off period." Rossi noted, frowning as he looked over the file in his hands one more time, certain that there had to be more information that would make JJ's location obvious.

"But not unheard of." Reid shook his head. "Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, had an almost fifteen year hiatus."

Emily shook her head. "But Rader was already planning his next victim when he began communicating with police again." She disagreed. "It is more likely that he has continued to kill under the radar."

Rossi shook his head, handing the file over to Emily who flipped through it with a slow hesitation as she forced herself to look into her friend's past. "We should have known this going in. We could have protected her." He growled, glancing at Hotch with barely managed rage. "And now she's gone."

Hotch grimaced, looking at the others as he tried to push away the guilt he knew was deserved.

Now wasn't the time for fault-finding and hindsight.

Later, he could drown his guilt in a large bottle of bourbon.

But now, he had to be the leader.

"We will find her." He assured.

That had to be true.

Because he literally couldn't fathom another option.

* * *

><p>He moved quietly down the halls, trying to stay just out of the periphery of the others.<p>

They all knew him.

He had to be careful.

Luckily, they all knew him well enough not to even give him a second glance as he walked the corridors of the hospital.

But if anyone actually thought about it, if they were to somehow stop their busy mundane lives and actually ask him what he was doing there, he might have a problem.

Nothing the knife in his back pocket couldn't cure.

He grinned as he slipped into the FBI Agent's door unnoticed, feeling a surge of pity for the officer sleeping just on the other side.

The poor schmuck would probably lose his job when Agent Morgan was found.

He scoffed, finally turning around to look at his latest victim with distain as he realized that it would probably take the idiot doctors days to realize Agent Morgan's death was not naturally caused.

Good. He thought, grinning slightly.

That would give him more time with Jenny.

He frowned, slipping the knife back into its sheath as he looked at Agent Morgan uncaringly. Another loose end before the final prize. Unfortunately, to use his trusted tool again on the FBI Agent would be too obvious—even the idiots would be able to make the connection.

And he needed as much time with Jenny as possible.

Picking up a pillow, he sighed, fighting a grin as he shoved the pillow against the Agent's face. The man struggled briefly before the heart monitors sounded in one long beeping alarm.

Grinning, he strolled out of the room quickly wondering how long it would take those morons to come and find the Agent dead.

Narrowing his gaze, he smiled.

He really couldn't wait to tell Jenny.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the delay, I've literally agonized over this part. Originally, I had this as two chapters, but since I've put you all through waiting, I decided to lump them together as one to make up for it. If you are worried about Morgan, you should be.

Also, major brownie points to anyone who can correctly guess what movie I was watching when I wrote this. I think I burried it well enough, but probably not.

* * *

><p>Emily looked down at her phone, slowing only slightly, fighting the urge to call Derek just to check in on him. She had been forced to turn her phone off on the chopper, and would need to keep it off while inside the State Prison walls.<p>

But that didn't stop her from worrying.

"Prentiss." Hotch barked, noticing that she had fallen behind. "Are you coming or should I leave you behind?" He asked, not slowing his stride as he reached the guard door and deposited his gun, badge, and phone.

"Sorry." She shook her head, quickening her pace as she quickly followed Hotch's lead and handed over her important items.

"Brian Cooper. Interrogation Room 4." The guard gestured, "We pulled him out of general population so he would be ready for you."

"Brian." Hotch greeted, looking down at the file just to be sure he had his facts correct. "I'm Supervisory Special Agent Hotchner from the FBI, this is Emily Prentiss. We need your help." He admitted, not wasting any time.

Brian watched them cautiously, calculating their sincerity. "Do you know Jennifer Jareau?" He asked, debating whether to trust them or not.

"We work with her." Emily admitted, frowning softly as she sat across from the inmate. He stuck out in his orange jumpsuit, his handsome face offering an innocence that reminded her almost instantly that this interrogation was far different than any other. "That's why we're here."

"JJ sent you?" He asked, his face brightening.

"No." Hotch shook his head, not having time for this. "We came because she's missing." He sat down next to Emily, authority oozing out of every pore. "And we need your help to find her."

Brian straightened in his chair, pulling against his cuffs. "How can I help?"

"We believe whoever took her now, may have been involved that night." Hotch admitted reluctantly, careful to keep the possibility of overturning this man's conviction off the table.

He had read the court documents and had little doubt this man had been wrongfully convicted, railroaded by a system that at the time seemed to care more about money than honesty.

And later, he would see if there was anything he could do to help.

After they found JJ.

"We need to know what happened that night at the camp." Emily leaned forward, passing the file of what they knew across the table. "We need to know anything that might help us find her."

Brian nodded, "I was 21, home for college from the summer and worked as the caretaker for the camp." He frowned, "That night changed my life forever."

_Brian grinned as he walked back toward the Administration Building, chuckling to himself. What a night._

_Christy was fun, and if she was a few years older, he might even consider something long-term._

_But who said summer had to be complicated?_

_He turned as he heard someone stumble down the steps on the cabin to his right—JJ's cabin if he wasn't mistaken, and stepped forward to help._

_'JJ?'_

_'Brian!' She sighed with relief, obviously frazzled as she pulled a young boy behind her. 'Brian you've got to help me.'_

_'Whoa.' He stopped her, surprised as he glanced down at the little boy who was covered in a dark red sticky substance. 'What's going on here?'_

_The little boy shrunk back behind JJ obviously terrified._

_'Something's wrong.' JJ looked around, nervously biting the inside of her cheek as she tried to keep herself from freaking out. 'Johnny—'_

_Brian snorted despite himself. 'JJ, you know as well as I do that this could be one of John's elaborate pranks.'_

_JJ sighed, running her hand through her long golden hair that glistened in the moonlight. 'I don't think even John would push that this far.' She remarked._

_Brian frowned, not liking the way the little boy seemed to cling to JJ, transferring the sticky substance onto his friend's clothes. 'If you want, I'll go check it out for you.'_

_JJ smiled gratefully, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding. 'Thanks, but it's okay. I'll just take care of it. Everything's probably fine—' She trailed off, suddenly feeling even more embarrassed than she had earlier._

_Brian's frown deepened, feeling a sickening pang tug at the bottom of his stomach. 'But just to be safe, why don't you take him back to First Aid, and I'll check it out?'_

_'No, it's okay—'_

_'Listen.' He asserted, a little more forcefully than he intended. 'The Director's Cabin and the Admin building are the only places with a phone. You go to Director Perkins's place and he'll know what to do.'_

Hotch frowned as the other man's voice cracked slightly.

"And that was the moment that changed everything." Brian shook his head, closing his eyes as he remembered the worst night of his life.

"You said that you found the bodies of the fellow counselor and three campers." Emily stated for him, stepping in compassionately. Yes, they needed as many details as possible.

But she could almost see the torture this man was putting himself through.

"It was the worst thing I've ever seen." Brian shook his head, his voice soft as he stared off remembering.

"We need to know everything." Hotch reasserted. "Any detail may help us find her."

* * *

><p>JJ groaned as she felt the blood rapidly rushing from her arms, forcing her eyes to open with all the strength she had.<p>

A cabin.

She was in a cabin.

Looking up, she frowned as she pulled against her wrists that were tied with a thick itchy rope to something above her head.

She groaned again, fighting to keep her eyes open despite the throbbing in her head.

And she couldn't help herself from remembering the last time she was in a cabin.

_'Jake, I'm going to find Director Perkins.' She smiled at the little boy who seemed frozen in shock as she helped him onto the exam table in the First Aid hall. 'It's all going to be okay.' She assured, pushing away the pang of dread in her stomach._

_It would be okay._

_It had to be._

_She slipped out of the room, grateful as the nurse on staff passed her by without a second glance._

_This really wasn't as bad as she thought it was, she assured herself._

_She frowned as she looked to the closed door that connected the Administration Building to the Director's Cabin. _

_If it really wasn't anything, she shouldn't be pounding on Director Perkins door._

_Stepping behind the counter, she picked up the lone telephone in the Administration Building, suddenly struck by how odd it was that there were only two telephones for the entire camp. _

_Dialing the extension for the other cabin, she frowned as she heard the phone ring, coupled with the distant shrill sound of the phone ringing on the other end._

_Director Perkins **always **answered._

_Something was wrong._

_Hanging up the phone, she sighed as she lifted her hand to knock lightly on the door, stopping midair as her eyes caught the soft glistening of the light against a sticky liquid that seeped out from underneath the door._

_She knew that sight, that smell._

_The same smell that had covered little Jake Harkins._

_Blood._

_Steeling herself, she pushed the door gently, surprised to find it unlocked as it swung easily._

_'Director Perkins?' She asked, her voice no larger than a whisper as she stepped over the small pool of blood down the hall._

_A sound she couldn't distinguish—something between a grunt and a gurgled cry for help—answered her, compelling her up the stairs as she followed the small trail of blood._

_'Director?' She called again, desperately pushing away the fear that seemed to have a tight grip on her insides._

_It was odd—this out of body experience—as she found her way into the Director's bedroom, rooted at the doorway with shock as she took in the blood soaked sheets._

_Her feet moved from under her, and she shuddered only slightly as she felt a blackened figure watching from behind her._

_But all she could focus on—the only thing her eyes could see—was the body tangled in the mass of bloody sheets, and for some reason, she stepped closer to him, captivated by the horror in front of her._

_It was his eyes._

_Those dark orbs that she had always found slightly intimidating, lay open. Staring at her with a look as if pleading to be released from some awful torture._

_Years later, she would watch television and laugh as dead bodies were always depicted as something peaceful._

_The sight in front of her was anything but._

_Director Perkins had known nothing resembling anything like peace in his last moments._

_And his face—his eyes included—contorted in a pained horror, it was almost too much for her to take._

_She blinked, staring at his tortured face until she felt the figure behind her shift. Turning quickly, she caught only a brief glance of a figure she felt like she recognized before it slipped out of the room entirely._

_And then, though the situation reeked of a déjà vu she didn't have time to place, she screamed._

Pulling at her immobilized arms, she closed her eyes and felt her body begin to relax in an exhausted sleep.

Terrified beyond belief, she just couldn't help but worry what would greet her the next time she awoke.

* * *

><p><em>'Jenny.'<em> A familiar sing-song voice called from afar, the sound enough alone to send her stomach rolling as a wave of nausea hit. _'Oh Jenny. It's time to get up.'_

She cracked her eyes open slightly, clamping them down tightly again as the world spun around her.

"Good morning Jenny." A familiar voice leered as something sharp pricked against the soft flesh of her face. "I've been waiting for you."

"Who-?" JJ sputtered, cringing as her own voice seemed to send her head spinning, nausea bubbling close to the surface. She pulled at her arms, surprised to feel them immobilized and tied with what felt like a thick rope above her head. "Who are you?" She asked, keeping her eyes clamped shut tightly as she braced herself against the wall.

"You mean you don't remember me Jenny?" The voice asked, the sharp object slicing into her skin painfully as he drew a long shallow cut down her left cheek. She hissed out in pain, which seemed to satisfy him as he pulled back. Leaning forward, he spoke low, with small flecks of spit striking against her skin. "Nothing can harm you here." He snickered, "Nothing but me that is."

Her eyes shot open, looking for evidence as she tried to establish her bearings.

No.

It couldn't be.

"Doug?" Her voice hitched slightly as the world seemed to come into focus slightly. It was still blurry—almost foggy—but she fought to make sense of the images around her.

This didn't make sense.

She knew him.

Why was he doing this?

"Jenny." He grinned widely, his face ridiculously close to hers as she tried to comprehend what was going on.

This had happened once before. She knew it. She had felt like this before. It wasn't good.

Why couldn't she remember?

Her head throbbed, and if it wasn't for the absolute look of delight on Doug's face, she might just allow herself to fall back into the abyss that seemed to be calling out with her.

"Why are you doing this?" JJ felt her words slur as the world spun around her.

"It has been too long, Jenny." Doug grinned, the knife gleaming at his side as he stepped back, surveying her. "How could you forget? Your own sister?" He accused.

"I don't know what you're talking about." JJ insisted defiantly, pulling at her arms as she slowly tried to formulate some sort of plan.

"Oh, Jenny." Doug smiled condescendingly, turning away from her as he knelt down behind a large duffle bag. "Of course you do."

JJ's stomach rolled as she tried to watch wherever he was going. Fighting the nausea desperately with eyes closed tightly, she jumped as she felt Doug's warm breath against the skin of her neck again.

"All I asked of you was to stay quiet." He scolded, tracing small circles along her taut bicep. "But you couldn't even do that, could you?" He chuckled to himself. "And now Agent Morgan had to pay the price."

Knives. Her brain churned, trying to make a connection she knew was there.

Knives meant something.

Knives.

If she could just get her ears to stop ringing, maybe she could remember.

"What are you talking about?" She stuttered, only then realizing her words were slurred as well. "What happened to Derek?"

"I had to tie up loose ends." He shrugged, pressing the tip of the blade harder against her skin until blood rose to the top. "I've been waiting for this for a long time."

"What are you talking about?" She asked, fighting the tears that burned against her eyes.

Derek.

He had killed Derek.

Because of her.

"Your parents were probably so proud when Annie and I started dating." He grinned wickedly, looming over her as he touted himself proudly effectively ignoring her question. "My family was so popular, and yours was made up of _coal miners_." He spat the last words as if it left dirt on his tongue, bringing up a memory JJ had long forgotten.

_Dale Jareau came from coal-mining stock. In fact, in later years she had often decided that if she got an encyclopedia and looked up 'Coal Miner', her father would be the picture staring back at her._

_Even from the time she was small, Jennifer Jareau knew that Pennsylvania was in his blood._

_Which was why his move to Northern Vermont shortly after her parents' divorce never really seemed to make sense._

_'Be careful, Jen, that you don't like something just because it is popular.' He would always affirm as he settled in to catch a rare Washington Redskins game._

_Jenny had asked him once when she was about seven, what he meant, obviously confused._

_After all, headbands were popular, and she was pretty sure they were amazing._

_Her dad had laughed, picked her up and settled her next to him. 'Things aren't always what they seem Jenny Bean.' He explained. 'Sometimes people overlook what is staring them in the face because it isn't popular.'_

_'Oh.' She had sighed, still not understanding as she stilled against her father's warm strong frame._

_Some things a seven year old didn't need to understand._

"Doug." She sighed, leaning heavily against whatever held her propped up with increasing exhaustion as she tried to talk him down. "Let me go. We can talk about this."

"Oh Jenny." Doug cackled with delight, grinning from ear to ear. "You really don't remember, do you?" He shook his head. "I always thought it was an act—that you were just protecting me." He leaned forward pressing the tip of his finger against her nose. "But you honestly don't remember."

"Remember what?" She asked, her mouth growing dry and flinching as he snorted and ran the blade of the knife up and down her immobile arms.

"Why you are afraid of the woods." He explained, his tone patronizing as he fingered a stray lock of her hair.

"Why—How could you—?" She sputtered, catching herself just as she tried to shake her head to clear the growing cobwebs in her mind. "You can't know—"

"Jenny, don't you remember?" He bent down to her eyelevel, his eyes wide and gleeful as he cupped her chin. "You are afraid of the woods because out here, no one can hear you scream."

Her jaw dropped, her eyes widened as suddenly a corner of her mind seemed to lift the distant haze that had protected her for so long.

And she remembered.

_Jennifer Jareau adored her older sister._

_Adored was probably not strong enough of a word._

_In the world of eleven year old Jenny, Annie Jareau could walk on water._

_And if someone was a friend of Annie Jareau's, then by association, she would have nearly sold her soul to even hang out with them._

_So when Annie started dating the son of the guy with the cool summer camp, Jenny was thrilled, envisioning a wedding at the lake where she could go canoeing. _

_She had never been canoeing._

_And Doug was nice to her—not like her brothers. He even came to one of her soccer games once, and he brought **treats**._

_Annie had laughed, ruffled Jenny's hair and smiled. 'Seventeen's a little young to be getting married, don't you think?'_

_Jenny had shaken her head. She had always wanted to plan a wedding._

_Annie had only laughed harder, 'Why don't we make a deal? I get married when I want to, and I'll let you plan the wedding.'_

_Jenny had frowned, mulling over the options. 'How do I know you won't change your mind?' She asked skeptically._

_Having two older brothers and Annie for an older sister had taught her to be anything but gullible._

_Annie had thought about that for a moment before pulling off her favorite necklace and thrusting it into Jenny's hands. 'You can keep this as collateral.' _

_Days later, when Doug Perkins had come over to talk to Annie, Jenny had been hesitant to let him know she wasn't home._

_For some reason, that only seemed to make his smile grow bigger, if not slightly off._

_Bidding her to follow him, Jenny pushed down the small sense of fear as she stayed close to Doug's tall frame, wondering what they were doing out in the woods behind her home._

_Her parents had always warned them not to go too far into the woods._

_But she was **eleven** now, and rules like that were just for little kids—at least, that's what she kept reminding herself as they stepped deeper and deeper into the woods._

_'I wanted to show you this.' Doug grinned, jumping down into a small trench to push away a large boulder. 'This is my secret hiding place.'_

_'Wow.' Jenny murmured, shifting uncomfortably on her heels as she looked around for any sense of familiarity._

_'You haven't even seen the best part.' He assured her, removing the large stone to show a deep hole. 'Come look inside.'_

_'I don't want to.' Jenny hedged, for some reason having a bad pit in her stomach. 'I want to go home.'_

_'Oh, don't be such a baby—'_

_'Doug!' Another voice shouted. Jenny sighed with relief as the comforting voice of her sister grew closer. 'Where the hell are you?'_

_'Jenny and I are here at my spot.' He grinned, gesturing for JJ to come down and look in the hole._

_'You brought my sister out here?' Annie's voice grew closer, as if her route was now more definite. 'What the hell is wrong with you?'_

_Jenny bit her lip before stepping forward. If Annie knew this spot, she must have known whatever Doug was hiding. If Annie knew, she wanted to know too._

_Sliding up to the small hole, her eyes widened in sickened shock._

_She couldn't move._

_Couldn't speak._

_All she could see were the eyes of several dead animals staring up at her._

_Her dog had died once, and after having a funeral, her dad had buried him in the back yard._

_But these animals, they had blood all around them._

_And it was just too much for her to take._

_Their eyes—even shutting her eyes tightly, she could see their eyes staring at her._

_Pleading._

_She didn't turn as Annie made it into the clearing. 'Damn it Doug, I told you to leave me alone—what are you doing?' She asked, her tone slightly panicked as she took in her little sister standing next to the monster she hadn't known had lied under the surface of the boy she had been dating. 'Get away from her.' She growled._

_Doug smiled, patting Jenny lightly on the head. 'I'm just showing her how cool it is.'_

_'Get away from her!' Annie screamed, rushing up to her younger sister as she checked her over. 'Jenny. Jen. Look at me.'_

_Hearing her sister's commands distantly, Jenny managed to tear her eyes away from the disfigured creatures. 'Come on, we're going home.' Annie looked up at Doug with a look full of disgust as she pulled her sister behind her. 'I'm calling the cops you asshole—'_

_'Bitch!' He screamed, slapping her loudly as he picked up the knife out of his back pocket. 'No one talks to me like that.' He plunged the knife into the soft flesh of Annie's stomach instantly, too quickly for the older girl to react._

_Annie stared at him, shocked, before turning to her sister. 'Jenny.' She slurred, trying to keep her eyes focused at the blinding pain in her stomach. Finally, she mustered her strength. 'Run!'_

_Jenny looked on with horror, her feet rooted to the spot as Doug seemed to realize what he had done. He leaned down and placed a soft kiss to Annie's lips before bringing the knife down twice more against her wrists. _

_'J—J.' Annie sputtered, blood pouring out of her body while her sister watched, incapable of moving to help. 'Run!'_ _ She screamed, the desperate plea snapping Jenny out of her trance and allowing her to run as fast as her eleven year old soccer frame would allow her. She ran faster than she ever had before, tripping over a large stick in the ground she hid behind the trunk of an old dying tree as she watched Annie and Doug distantly, panting for breath._

_'Bye Annie.' Doug smiled as he watched the life drain out of his ex-girlfriend's eyes, walking into the woods without a second glance._

_And only then, once she was sure Doug was far away, did Jenny start to scream._

Doug chuckled. "The best part—other than the fact that it took hours for those idiots to find you—was that because they found her by the animals, they thought she was working her way up to it. They actually thought she committed suicide" He stroked her hair like a father would to comfort a child. "And you were too stupid to say anything different."

"You killed her." JJ gasped, the memory so clear she wondered how she ever could have forgotten.

She had always been told that Annie's death had been so traumatic, she had blocked it out.

If only they had known how right they had been.

"It took five more summers for you to even come back up here." He scolded, as if that was some offense for which he was entitled to be annoyed. "Then an entire summer to get you into the woods to work at my dad's camp. But when you started introducing yourself as JJ, I thought you had remembered."

JJ's jaw dropped.

A stressor.

A trigger.

Now she had proof that it wasn't Brian Cooper who had slaughtered the campers.

It was Doug.

And everything—_everything_—in her life that had graced her nightmares had been a direct result of the man standing over her.

And right now, she was in a heap of trouble.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the delay, I hope you enjoy the chapter. The correct answer to last chapter's secret question was 'Phantom of the Opera', though a lot of people guessed 'Lovely Bones' which made me go out and watch that movie. It was my intention to leave Morgan's fate a little more ambiguous for a little while, but it seemed right to have it here.

* * *

><p>"Agent Rossi?" James Hansen hesitated before he stepped into the room where Reid and Rossi were pouring over the evidence and notes from both JJ's sister's suicide and the camp murders.<p>

There had to be something they were missing.

"What is it?" Rossi barked out, not bothering to look up. Personal cases were hell. He hated this.

They had to find JJ.

If he had looked up, he would have noticed the officer's ashen face and known instantly that something was wrong.

"I got a call from the officer in front of your Agent's hospital room." He gulped down a surge of guilt as he pushed forward. "He said he got distracted." The small town officer cleared his throat. "He's gone."

Reid stopped, his eyes widening as he refused to turn around.

This wasn't happening.

Not to Morgan.

There had to be some mistake.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Rossi asked, refusing to acknowledge any possibility until the young officer had spelled it out for him. For years he had wandered around as a lone wolf, taking pride in his ability to remain blissfully detached. But these people, they had quickly become closer than family.

And for David Rossi, that meant a lot.

"They can't find him. But—" James hesitated, torn between wanting to let the agents know the full story and hating admitting his own fault that he hadn't done better at protecting the fallen agent. "But first glance indicates that he flat-lined shortly before he disappeared."

Morgan was dead.

JJ was missing, likely with only a few hours left.

And suddenly, a world without either of them didn't seem like a world Spencer Reid wanted to be a part of.

Hope had never been anything he had found value in. Faith had always seemed like an abstract concept that he could never quite understand.

But right now, despite all the evidence to the contrary, he didn't want to believe that JJ and Morgan might never be coming back.

He shook his head, focusing on what he knew. Facts didn't lie. They had to find JJ. "Our UnSub is narcissistic, it could be that he took Morgan's body to prove what he could do to JJ." Reid postulated, his mind whirring with the uncomfortable possibilities.

"Stop it. Everyone." Rossi said authoritatively, glancing at Reid with a comforting support borne of experience. One of those 'Been there, felt that' smiles where all you can do is let someone figure it out for themselves. Any other time, Dave might have taken the kid aside and helped him talk it out. But right now, they didn't have time. "For now, we proceed as if he is alive."

Reid sighed, hating that he always seemed to jump to the worst case scenario. Generally, he would be classified as a pessimist, deriving from the Latin word _pessimus_ meant a state of mind tended to see negative outcomes as more probable. Looking at Rossi, the man he admired as a mentor and a friend, he wished that he could have a little hope.

But hope was often so hard to come by.

Gulping down, he forced himself to review the evidence again. "If he is alive, then he somehow tricked the UnSub." He theorized.

"Which means he probably followed him to Jenny." James surmised. "That's what I would do."

"It also means that the UnSub probably isn't suspicious of whatever happened. Derek knew that this UnSub is smart enough to notice intimate details, but narcissistic enough to overlook easy mistakes." Reid's heart surged with the revelation as his mind continued to make associations. "He also would have made sure to leave us clues..." Reid trailed off, inwardly knowing it was true. Morgan was experienced. If he had been murdered, he would have left the team a clue to help find JJ's abductor. Since he hadn't, logic suggested that he must not be dead.

Reid grinned at the deduction. It was circular, but it was logical.

Morgan was alive.

He had to be.

And JJ was going to be okay.

"Our goal is still the same. We've got to find her." Rossi glanced out the window, grimacing as the sun began to set. "Because she is running out of time."

* * *

><p>She was struggling to stay calm. She could almost feel herself hyperventilating.<p>

Losing it.

How the hell was she supposed to get out of this?

She flinched as the blade came up to the cut on her cheek, elongating the still bleeding wound painfully. "Oh Jenny," He grinned, his yellow teeth making her stomach roll almost as much as the pure evil in his eyes. "You finally remember, don't you?" He tapped the flat edge of the knife against her nose playfully. "It took long enough."

She took in a long, halting breath, trying to stay calm as she tried to come up with some way out of this. "Just tell me one thing."

"Only one?" He asked, his voice dripping with glee. "I hope to have a long time with you. I've been waiting for this for far too long."

"Why?" Doug repeated, stepping back. He obviously hadn't anticipated her question and she could almost see the confidence draining out of him.

Taking courage, she pressed forward. Forcing him to explain himself, keeping him talking—hopefully it would keep her alive. "Why all of this? Why Annie?" She felt a lump in her throat, "Why me?"

He hesitated, and she could tell he was trying to muster his waning bravado.

Could a narcissistic sociopath really have never asked himself these questions?

"It doesn't matter why." He huffed, his gaze narrowing to the long stream of blood trickling down her face. The corners of his mouth turned upward revealing a sadistic grin that made her stomach want to revolt. "I've done all of this because I can."

JJ gulped as he leaned forward, his face almost touching her as his warm hot breath hit against her sharply.

He fingered the gash on her cheek, drenching the tip of his finger in her own blood before putting it against her lip, shushing her before she could ask another question. "But let's not waste time with any more questions." He crooned, the knife in his other hand loosely caressing her immobile arms.

"Go to hell." She spat, directly in his face. She grinned as he pulled back, disgusted.

It was the wrong move, she was well aware of that.

Keep him talking, play the subservient role….that was protocol.

But the other, the far more rewarding plan in this moment, was to tell this asshole exactly what she thought of him.

While both plans would mean she was distracting him long enough for her team to find her, only one ensured violence and pain in her future.

Bring it on.

She smiled while he wiped the spit from his face, her heart surging at the look of disgust that crossed his awful features. The bastard deserved it.

She forced her smile not to waver when the disgust on his face turned to rage, forced herself to stare him down when he barreled toward her.

But she couldn't stop herself from crying out as his fist made contact with the long cut on his face. The force of the impact made her see stars, and the whole world swam again. "You are not in charge here!" He bellowed, striking her again with his fist and taking pleasure as he felt her nose crack underneath him. "I am."

* * *

><p>He hurt.<p>

His stomach throbbed. His fingers trembled.

But right now, he didn't have time to worry about that.

Rolling out of the back of his attacker's large pickup truck, he winced as he grabbed at his stitches.

It felt good to feel the pain, good to know he was alive.

But it hurt like hell.

He grunted when he looked down at his hand, slightly annoyed at the small amount of blood that seeped through his fingertips.

Damn.

Carefully stepping around the truck, he quickly calculated any options he had at entering the building unnoticed.

He hoped the UnSub, hadn't seen him, but he couldn't be sure.

All he knew was that he was grateful to be alive.

_Derek groaned in frustration, opening his eyes ten minutes after Emily had left as he surrendered in utter defeat._

_He hated hospitals._

_The smell. The sheets. The constant feeling of being watched by nurses too young to actually be capable of saving his life._

_While none of those factors were exactly something he enjoyed, he could deal with each one of them individually._

_But the worst, by far, was that he could never fall asleep in hospitals._

_Annoyed, he craned his neck and winced as he sat up straighter, surprised to catch a glimpse of the man who stabbed him pausing at his window as he looked around the hall._

_Shit._

_The bastard who had sliced him open was back, and if he didn't think fast he was sure he wouldn't make it._

_Derek's mind raced and he pushed away the thoughts that instantly went to profile the UnSub._

_Obsessional._

_Narcissistic._

_Devolving._

_Laying down, he placed his left hand under his gown, grabbing the heart monitor probes on his chest as he pretended to be asleep._

_He had to time this just right, or else he was dead._

_Waiting as the UnSub slipped into the room, he prayed the UnSub didn't shoot him in the head or chest._

_Anything else, he could recover from._

_But, if the profile was right, the UnSub was narcissistic enough to miss the possibility of being outsmarted._

_He waited as he felt the UnSub slip around next to him and pick up a small pillow from underneath him._

_This was it._

_This was his chance._

_Taking in as deep a breath as he could without drawing attention to himself, he prepared himself, only waiting a fraction of a second before he felt the plush pillow pressed against him tightly._

_Struggling, he forced himself to remain calm as he slowly counted to eight before ripping the heart monitor tabs off his chest under a masked attempt at fighting off the attacker and then went limp._

_His attacker pressed the pillow a little more forcefully against his mouth and nose._

_Morgan's lungs were starting to burn._

_His wound hurt._

_But he forced himself to remain limp for just a fraction of a second longer, just long enough to feel the pressure against his mouth and nose lift._

_He had done it._

_He was alive._

_And now he had to go find JJ._


	8. Chapter 8

His first instinct was to burst through the door and face whatever consequences awaited him.

In normal circumstances he wouldn't even think twice about it.

That rush, that excitement, that came from busting down a door sometimes was all he needed to get through a tough day.

Kicking ass and taking names, that was his style.

But physically—that was another story entirely. He had just come out of surgery, his entire body was still sore.

To be honest, right now it felt like his chest was on-fucking-fire.

He was pretty sure Penelope could kick his ass right now if she wanted to, and he couldn't risk putting JJ in more danger.

He had to help her.

He looked around the small secluded cabin, cursing himself that he hadn't made Emily give him his cell phone back.

With his phone, he could call in the cavalry.

Backup would be here in minutes.

Sure, there's no way in hell they would let him come along with the raid, but everything would work out just fine.

JJ would have the help of a SWAT team, the FBI, ambulances, the works.

Instead, all she had right now was him.

Broken, injured, and in a world of pain.

If only he had his phone.

In all fairness, he had barely had the presence of mind to pull on a pair of unused scrubs in his attempt to hitch a ride with the unsuspecting UnSub.

But that didn't matter now, he just had to get inside.

He was the only hope JJ had.

* * *

><p>It had been hours since she and Hotch had gotten back from the State Penitentiary only to find that everything had gone to hell and back.<p>

JJ was still missing.

Morgan was 'gone'.

Emily sighed with frustration as she looked at the files in front of them one more time.

There _had_ to be something they were missing.

"What's bugging you?" Dave asked softly, almost able to see the cogs in her head turning.

"This UnSub, I just—it just doesn't make sense to me." She admitted.

"How so?" Hotch asked, putting down his pen.

They were running out of options.

And honestly, JJ was running out of time.

"The forensic countermeasures, for starters. And then he dumps the bodies on his own property?" She sighed, pushing the files away from her in disgust. "He had to have known that he would be one of the first suspects."

"Maybe that was the plan all along." Hotch mused.

"Doug Perkins is organized, but then he grabs JJ in the middle of the day—completely unnoticed, but there's no way he could have planned that. There's spontaneity and an almost compulsive sense of organization, all at the same time."

"So you think there is something else going on?" James asked for clarification. He liked these Feds, and he could tell they were good at what they did. At least, for Jenny's sake, he hoped so.

"Right. Well maybe." She shook her head, pulling the files back toward her to look over them one more time. "We are going off the assumption that these murders were planned to lure JJ back here, right?" She asked rhetorically. "I just can't figure out why."

"He's acting out a fantasy." Reid concluded, "He needed her here to fulfill that."

"Exactly." Emily pounced on that. "But why? Why JJ? Why now?"

"Maybe he is just a psycho." James offered.

"He's an obsessive narcissist. Psychotic, maybe, but even psychotics have a motivation." Reid corrected quickly, his own mind turning as they worked through the profile.

"And here's the thing, JJ's no threat to him." Rossi added thoughtfully. "He could have kept killing and gone on his merry way like he's probably been doing for years. Something had to trigger him"

"He let JJ get away." Emily reminded them, unable to help herself from remembering everything they had learned from Brian Cooper.

"The woods mean something to him. If he was somehow involved in JJ's sister's suicide," Hotch added, musing more to himself than the others, "then he has let her get away twice."

"That's what I mean." She emphasized, feeling a slight excitement that the others could see the discrepancy as well. "So he starts killing here in her hometown again, knowing it would look suspicious, knowing that despite hating that place with a passion JJ and the rest of us would be called in."

Everyone fell silent, mulling over the possibilities. Finally, Dave spoke up. "Okay, so what we're saying is, he draws out JJ which means he has probably been following her."

"Right." Emily confirmed.

"None of the victims have a history of sexual assault, but were stabbed repeatedly." Hotch added.

"Suggesting a deep personal rage coupled likely with sexual impotence." Reid confirmed.

"So what does he want?" Emily asked pointedly.

"To kill her?" James offered, hesitating to state the obvious but still not sure where the Feds were going with that.

"If he wanted to just kill her, he could have done that a long time ago." Rossi frowned as he looked at the situation with distaste.

Hotch's frown deepened as they still remained steps behind. "But if he was completely obsessed, then he should have stalked her. Everything leading up to this moment, every kill would have been working his way up to JJ." He turned to the others. "So why didn't he?"

At that moment, Hotch's phone buzzed. Turning it on speaker so the others could hear, he grimaced. "What do you have?"

'_It's not promising.' _There was a soft crack in her voice and all could tell Garcia was struggling to keep it all together.

They all were.

"Anything more would help." Rossi comforted.

'_According to the city permits, there have been three other cabins erected on the Perkins property since the last surveys have been completed by the County Assessor.' _She sighed, frustrated by her own limitations. _'That's the best I can do.'_

"He has been planning this intricately." Reid shook his head, scratching his brow as he thought quickly. "He has done everything to avoid law enforcement." His eyes widened as a thought struck him. "He might have even built a place to keep her to avoid detection."

Rossi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "If this were motivated by love or affection, there would have been a stalking element. He would have wanted her to know who he was up front."

"He also would have targeted Will and Henry." Emily agreed.

"So if he's not in love with her, then what?" Reid sighed. Statistically speaking, if the UnSub had taken her out of some love fantasy, JJ could play along and had a strong likelihood of survival.

"Fear." Hotch spoke up quietly. Looking around at the mounds of paperwork, he expounded his theory. "Look at the camp murder alone." He instructed. "All of it, every murder forced JJ into the admin building. He cut the phone lines, forcing her to the Director's room. Then he locked her in there until the police came."

"Makes sense." Emily agreed feeling the hope of finding JJ alive seeping through her fingertips, "He terrorized her. Now he wants as much time with her as possible."

"If that is the case, then he would most likely find a place that had significance to both of them." Hotch confirmed. "Reid, start a geographical profile with the confirmed buildings on the property against where the bodies have been left."

"The Perkins property goes deeper than most folks care to investigate." Sergeant Hanson scratched his head, "that makes sense."

'_Oh wait, there's more.' _This time, Garcia's voice sounded a little more confident. _'I went back, cataloguing similar crimes like you said and sent them to your tablets.' _The speed of her voice picked up, a little more excited at having a tangible lead to find JJ.

And hopefully Morgan.

She couldn't bear to think what would happen without her two favorite people.

'_June 15, 2010, an entire summer camp outside of Los Angeles was slaughtered including counselors, kids, administrators, all of them. Local police weren't able to find a suspect and ultimately deemed it a murder suicide. Conveniently, Doug Perkins was working in Los Angeles at the time.'_

"After that?" Hotch asked, already having taken note of the date.

Just after the 'Blackout Killer'. Which meant, their UnSub Doug Perkins might have heard JJ.

A stressor.

A trigger.

'_Knife-wielding murderers are surprisingly common.' _Penelope frowned, _'But after that, there was a spree in New Orleans. In Pennsylvania, and in DC.' _The tech coughed, unable to keep the guilt out of her voice. _'I remember getting those cases, I passed them over for—there were other—"_

"You couldn't have known Penelope." Dave interrupted quickly, cutting off any attempt for the beloved analyst to blame herself. "None of us could have."

"It probably infuriated him that she didn't notice him immediately. In his mind, he and JJ are connected and he was reaching out to her." Emily mused, "Which means that JJ is the center of this."

"Not just the center, she is what the UnSub's compulsion is all about." Reid corrected, suddenly feeling excited with the prospect of a lead. "Think about it. Without JJ's acknowledgement, the UnSub got more and more bold, calling out for her appreciation. Trying to force her into admitting she's afraid. He needs her affirmation as much as he needs to kill."

"He wants her to say it." Hotch pointed out. "He's not going to kill her until he gets it. He needs to know she is afraid of him."

"Which means, hopefully if we've figured that out, so has she." Dave sighed.

* * *

><p>Doug had just left out the back door, probably to find something else to make her life a living hell.<p>

And for just a moment, she could allow herself a brief window to break down.

She was so tired.

She _hurt._

But she had to get out of this.

The team would come for her, of that she was certain.

She just had to make it until then.

Closing her eyes, she thought of all the reasons she had to stay alive. She thought of Henry, his gorgeous smile that was a mirror of his father's. Will. Her team, her family, all of these people one by one floated before her eyes as a small reminder of everything she had to fight for.

With one conspicuous absence.

Derek Morgan.

And after the small parade of people she realized she needed to keep fighting for, she couldn't help but think of the man who hadn't made it. Who hadn't gotten away from Doug's murderous intentions unscathed.

How could she have been so blind? To allow the team, _Derek_, to be brought into this mess. To allow a man who had been one of her closest friends for a long time to lose his life by the same monster who had already taken so much.

Doug said he killed him.

And JJ had no reason to doubt Doug's gleeful declaration.

How could she live with herself after that?

She didn't know.

"Jayje." A whispered call made her eyes shoot open in surprise.

"Derek?" She asked, not believing the sight in front of her.

Maybe Doug had hit her in the head harder than she thought.

Her head _was _still spinning.

"Jayje, we don't have a lot of time." He limped slowly toward her and pulled at her restrained arms. "We've got to get you out of here."

"You're alive?" She breathed, still not entirely believing that he could be here despite feeling the sweat drip from his drenched skin.

He smiled, "Sorry Princess but you aren't getting rid of me that easily."

She choked out a sob mixed with laughter. "Doug said—"

"You think I can't outsmart some country bumpkin?" Morgan scoffed in mock offense, breathing heavily as his fingers fumbled over the tightly knotted rope.

She looked up at him through eyes bleary with tears, realizing she had never been more grateful to see Derek Morgan in her entire life.

Blinking rapidly, she cleared her eyes just as she felt the tightness around her left wrist loosen markedly.

"Almost there." He grunted pulling frantically at the ropes with everything he had.

Studying him as he worked tirelessly, she frowned at how white his face was as if completely drained from energy, but chose to stay silent.

He was here.

Which meant the team wasn't that far behind.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a movement. "Derek!" She hissed.

But it was too late.

She felt the whoosh shovel before a sickening thud dropped Morgan on top of her. Doug kicked him aside and JJ struggled, hoping that he had loosed her hands enough to give her a fighting chance.

He hadn't.

As she fought against the restraints, Doug punched her forcefully along the side of her head and tightened the ropes around her hands.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Doug growled, stepping away from the blonde to kick the other man once more.

JJ struggled to regain her breath, fighting to force herself to stay calm. "Doug, stop!" She cried, blinking back stars as she gathered herself and forced herself to focus.

Morgan was alive.

Unconscious, and bleeding on the floor beside her.

But alive.

Doug could have killed him right away. But he didn't.

That meant…Doug obviously still had something in store from her.

Something he still wanted from her.

And whatever she did, she had to keep herself from giving it to him.

But first, she had to figure out what that was.

For Morgan's sake as much as her own.

Doug was pacing frantically, obviously teetering on the edge between his barely controlled rage and some other emotion she was certain she didn't want to see.

"Stop? This isn't right, it's not _fair._" He spat angrily, pointing at Derek he fumed, "He's supposed to be _dead_."

"Doug—" JJ trailed off, taking in a deep breath as she searched for the right words.

She had always thought that words were her thing. Her tool to manipulate and control people.

But right now, words failed her completely.

"This is about you and me Jenny." He waved the knife between them angrily like a jilted lover who had been rudely interrupted on an intimate date. "And now _he's_ here. He's _supposed to be dead!_"

Derek grunted as Doug kicked him hard again, but lay still. JJ cried out to stop him, pulling at her arms and instinctively trying to jump up to stop him, only to be stopped as the world nearly spun out of control.

She had to stop for a moment, regaining her boundaries as she reassessed the situation.

She couldn't fight him off.

Couldn't fight back.

The only tool she had left was the profile.

"Doug, stop it!" She cried out, pushing away the fear from her voice and capitalizing at the fury she felt.

She hated this man. She hated him for what he had done to Morgan, to her friends, to her sister.

And for what he had done to her.

"This isn't about you and me. This is about _you._" She spat the last word, as if disgusted at the very thought of saying his name.

Goading him would only make him angrier, and more violent, but there was something he needed from her that was keeping her alive.

Respect?

Love?

Fear?

Her plan had worked so far, she wasn't dead yet.

Which meant, that whatever he wanted from her, he wasn't about to get it.

"No." He shook his head, closing the distance between them as his face contorted furiously. "You've—"

"This is about _you _and your selfishness_._" She interrupted, not even seeing his hand come up until it struck her face with a resounding slap.

She paused, fighting the urge to throw up. Luckily she hadn't eaten in hours, so there wasn't much for her stomach to rebel against.

"This is about us." He reaffirmed. "It's always been about _us._ You and I. Intertwined. Forever connected." He took in deep halting breaths as if to try and calm himself. "Without me, there would be no Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Jareau."

"Is that what you think?" She snorted, not bothering to keep the distain out of her voice. "Without you, I would have my older sister. My friends. My sanity."

"I _made _you." Doug shook his head. "Don't you see? I have made you who you are."

"I became who I am despite you." She spat. "You're no hero."

His eyes twinkled and he leaned in more closely, drumming his fingers along the handle of the knife as his breath tickled her nose. "I never said I was the hero." He jammed the knife forcefully into her right thigh, purposefully missing any major organs or arteries grinning more broadly as she screamed out in pain.

Waiting for her to catch her breath again, he leaned in close to her ear and whispered. "I'm the villain."


	9. Chapter 9

**Note: **It's been a _really_ long time. I almost hesitate to put this up since I figure updates will be requested for all of my other stories. Real life, as I am sure it happens for all of you, has been insane lately (a very good kind of insane) but a friend asked me to please give this particular story some resolution.

* * *

><p>She was terrified.<p>

She was exhausted.

She was in _so_ much pain.

And overall, she just wanted this to be over so she could break down and sob about it.

Derek—her only opportunity for salvation—was just out of the hospital, knocked out with a blow to the shovel that could have caused brain damage. She was tied up with nowhere to go, her vision swimming with every movement and a knife plunged painfully into her own flesh.

Her team—the people that should be coming for her—hadn't broken down any doors in the last five minutes, which only lead her to believe that they had no idea where she was.

Which only meant one thing: they weren't coming.

She was alone.

But hostage training hadn't prepared her for _this_. She was alone. She was going to die.

And all of this might have even been manageable if she could force her brain to string together a coherent thought.

JJ took in deep shuddering breaths as she tried to stay conscious. Her leg was on fire with a pain that was a million times worse than giving birth.

At least then she'd had drugs.

She snorted at her own joke, nearly delirious with the endorphins and pain coursing through her body.

Doug stood, his face souring. "This is not funny!"

Except for it was. Hilarious in fact. A serial murderer who had targeted her for _years_ was standing over her with blood on his hands shouting at her.

"You are a joke." JJ winced involuntarily as she prepared herself for him to strike her again.

"Shut up!" He shouted, kicking the shovel that he had used to take down Derek so that it clanged forcefully against the wall. "I'm going to kill you."

JJ couldn't help herself—it was probably incredibly inappropriate given her situation (but hey, she was still alive so at least it was working)—and chuckled as she thought of how badass this situation looked. Here she was tied up with blood dripping down her face and a knife stuck in her leg while the UnSub threw a _temper tantrum_.

He was no better than Henry. At least Henry was young enough that it was adorable.

Wait.

She forced herself to close her eyes and replay her last thoughts. Something was there. A way out, something important that was just on the tip of her tongue.

Fuck, if she could just get this damn knife out of her leg she might be able to think.

Her eyes widened. That was it. The _knife!_ In all his attempts at bluster and intimidation he left the knife.

Now she just had to get to it.

"I have spent years on this plan. I am the villain!" He spun around and began pacing. Calculating.

Well JJ might not be able to think clearly, but she could see how much this was messing with him.

"You are no more terrifying than my son." JJ rolled her eyes. "You expect me to be afraid of _you_? You are nothing more than a scared little boy with a God complex. You think taking a life is something to be proud of, something that makes you brave? You are a coward."

"I never said I was brave." Doug spat back, flipping around. "And I know you are scared of me. I saw it that day in the woods. I saw it that night at the camp."

"I was eleven." JJ forced herself to roll her eyes and not recoil at the memory. "And seeing horror like that doesn't make me afraid of _you._"

"Shut up!" He cried, grabbing a rickety old table that stood against the wall and flinging it as far as he could before practically running out of the cabin and slamming the door hard behind him.

And now they were alone.

* * *

><p>'<em>Oh my gosh, Sir I found it!'<em> Garcia squealed before even offering a hello.

"Where?" Hotch didn't waste time, he just started going. Because going somewhere got them closer to JJ. Hopefully to Morgan too. The others followed him to the car with Rossi and Prentiss barking out orders for the local PD.

'_He built his own cabin. Sir, it's located in the woods about a mile behind where the Jareau property was.' _Garcia explained.

"That's right in the center of the geographical profile. The Perkins property abuts JJ"s parents old house on a property line that runs through the woods." Reid agreed, pulling on his own coat.

"Send us GPS. We are on the way." Hotch ordered.

_And pray we get there in time_. He thought.

* * *

><p>When Doug walked back in the cabin, he smirked seeing Jenny against the wall with her arms still held up above her head, seemingly asleep.<p>

He would break her. She would look at him with the same terror she had back then.

And then, just like the dozens that have gone before, he would watch as the life fled from before her eyes.

"Jenny." He practically sang, a smile tugging at his lips.

He was in control.

"Jenny, it's time to wake up."

Her eyes opened slowly and he kicked the bleeding wound to her thigh to speed up the process.

She cried out in pain and he felt a sense of calm wash over him.

This was it.

"Jenny, I was thinking. You were right, I am just like your son." His smile broadened as her eyes widened. "So you gave me an idea."

"Doug, please."

"The thing I never considered was having a protégé." He licked his lips lecherously as her frown grew. "Henry is that perfect malleable age."

"You bastard." She spat at him, her spit mixed with blood.

And there it was.

He saw it.

Fear.

No matter how much she tried to hide it, he had seen it and now, his quest was over.

At least this part. Because having a protégé birthed by none other than Jenny Jareau was appealing on so many levels.

"Oh Jenny, are you scared now?" He chuckled and leaned over her, reaching for the knife he always carried.

His eyebrow ticked up in semi confusion at his empty pocket before he remembered the satisfaction of plunging the blade deep into perfect little Jenny Jareau. He bent down to slide the blade out of her leg when his own eyes widened.

It was gone.

No sooner had he made this realization did Jenny bring her hands down and push him off her. With how weak she was, it probably would not have made a difference.

If he had seen it coming.

He stumbled backward and tripped over the prone frame of Derek Morgan.

"You bitch." His jaw set as he turned to stand back up but instead screamed out as a searing pain entered his side.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

"Who uses knives anymore?" Agent Morgan groaned as he stood up. He pushed Doug back to the ground and slowly clamored over him.

Doug writhed in pain.

"What's the thing about knives?" Jenny sighed, dropping her arms from where he _thought_ they had been immobilized.

"Usually guys with mommy issues who can't get it up." Morgan chuckled with a slight grimace.

And then Doug passed out.

_As soon as the door slammed shut JJ sprang into action. She thanked God for that Pilates class Garcia made her sign up for and gingerly maneuvered her body the best she could. She tried to reach her right leg toward her immobilized hands with little luck—she was barely able to touch the knife with her elbow that way. Grimacing in pain, she panted while trying to come up with another way. Curling her hips toward her and simultaneously rotating her upper body allowed her to grip the knife with her mouth._

_If this had been a horror movie—or hell even an action movie—she would have been able to cleanly pull the knife out with her teeth._

_But this was no movie._

_The knife was stuck, and the awkward angle and clumbsiness caused by her concussion made her slice her own thigh open even more._

_But eventually the knife was out._

_She shifted the cool metal into her hands and sawed furiously at the thick ropes that had kept her bound. She missed more often than not, and felt the warm sticky wetness run down her arms until finally it happened._

_She was loose._

_She was loose!_

_Her arms fell quickly to the side as she pondered what to do next. _

_Calling for help was out of the question._

_Moving more than about ten feet was probably impossible._

_Just then, Morgan groaned and JJ felt a flash of hope._

_They might be lucky enough to make it out of here after all._

* * *

><p>A few weeks later, JJ was successful in petitioning for Brian Cooper's release.<p>

And months later, when a brochure came in the mail for a nice family retreat deep in the woods, JJ shredded it and threw it away quickly.

Because she had vowed to never enter the woods again.

For in the woods, no one could hear her scream.

**The End.**


End file.
